Nintendo Life Ranks Every Nintendo System Ever

[Neiteio]

I mean, Switch will likely end up with enhanced ports of all the greats from previous systems (i.e. RE4 is on the way, Metroid Prime Trilogy is likely, etc), and it has incredible games in its own right, including the best Smash, best Mario Kart, best 3D Zelda, best 3D Mario, etc, with MP4, Pokemon Gen 8, Bayonetta 3, Luigi's Mansion 3, Animal Crossing and more on the way.

Switch is a safe bet for No. 1, I'd say.

 

[vrcsix]

Wii and DS too low
GameCube too high

When all is said and done, Switch will probably have earned a spot in the top three.

 

[Cocolina]

The Wii U was a Wii HD with a Jaguar control pad and about 1/5 of the games.

And not exactly surprising that the latest console is number one. IN STORES NOW!

 

[Jobbs]

WIi above NES is gross, but to each their own

Wii should be below everything including VB

 

[Tomacco]

I feel like peoples ranking of the NES is directly related to their age

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Nintendo 64 needs to be 3 spots higher

Right Windrunner Synth ?

 

[Thatguy]

I really don't get the elation some people are experiencing with Switch. Yeah a new Smash game just came out, but does nobody remember the feeling of all the other Smash games coming out? Ultimate is just another one. Probably the best thing about Ultimate is that the online sort of works finally.

Other than Smash 2018 has been a huge dud for me. Not 1 other $60 looked half way worth it for me. Splatoon is still great, and Zelda is GOAT, but both experiences were there on WiiU. Not to mention, Switch is not very old. Calling it #1 is just dripping in fanboyism. I suppose if I ran a Nintendo centric website as a major part of my income, my livelihood would be linked to Switch hype and I would be slicing up numbers to look as shiny as possible.

The #1 console from Nintendo will always be SNES. They had the full support of all major 3rd parties. The #1 portable will always be NDS. Sales and library were just tremendous. Switch has a battery, a screen, a lower price, and lower specs than PS4 at launch. By every measurement it's a portable. If Nintendo wants to call it a 'portable console' then they have to call DS, GBA, 3DS all portable consoles too. You don't get it both ways when it suits you just because you say so.

Since ranking by sales numbers is simple math, the only ranking thats fun to talk about is gamer weight or gamer impact...which one was the most fun. For me it would look more like:

1. SNES
2. GBA
3. Gamecube
4. N64
5. Gameboy + Gameboy color
6. NES
7. NDS + NDS lite
8. Switch
9. WiiU
10. NES
11. 3DS + New 3DS
12. Wii
13. VB

 

[ASaiyan]

...oh, I get it. This is one of those troll lists designed to upset people. Right???

 

[ZeoVGM]

WIi above NES is gross, but to each their own

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Gross seems harsh but I get it. Surely your other opinions are level-headed and reasonab--

Wii should be below everything including VB

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Okay, stop.

 

[Rouk']

You only have to pay an additional £55 for the privilege....

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I'm not saying otherwise, It's just that the Pro controller have generally been well received, so I wanted to confirm that. It's no secret that the Joy-Cons are not the most confortable way to play games.

 

[BocoDragon]

NES should be higher on nearly everyone's list, since it was a juggernaut in its day. The sheer hold it had on all of gaming and of culture in general in the 80s and early 90s was unrivaled. Its library is massive and full of absolute classics.

But it does suffer due to age... I think you had to have been there to really understand its impact and what it meant in its day. And at this point, anyone under 30 wasn't. Unfortunately I think its graphics are significantly primitive to the fact that most younger people can't really go back and enjoy it to the fullest extent.... while, by contrast, many people too young for SNES can still go back to that pretty easily.

I think N64 has probably aged as badly as NES... but its audience is a decade younger and so it has more representation on modern lists.

 

[MrCheezball]

I really don't get the elation some people are experiencing with Switch. Yeah a new Smash game just came out, but does nobody remember the feeling of all the other Smash games coming out? Ultimate is just another one. Probably the best thing about Ultimate is that the online sort of works finally.

Other than Smash 2018 has been a huge dud for me. Not 1 other $60 looked half way worth it for me. Splatoon is still great, and Zelda is GOAT, but both experiences were there on WiiU. Not to mention, Switch is not very old. Calling it #1 is just dripping in fanboyism. I suppose if I ran a Nintendo centric website as a major part of my income, my livelihood would be linked to Switch hype and I would be slicing up numbers to look as shiny as possible.

The #1 console from Nintendo will always be SNES. They had the full support of all major 3rd parties. The #1 portable will always be NDS. Sales and library were just tremendous. Switch has a battery, a screen, a lower price, and lower specs than PS4 at launch. By every measurement it's a portable. If Nintendo wants to call it a 'portable console' then they have to call DS, GBA, 3DS all portable consoles too. You don't get it both ways when it suits you just because you say so.

Since ranking by sales numbers is simple math, the only ranking thats fun to talk about is gamer weight or gamer impact...which one was the most fun. For me it would look more like:

1. SNES
2. GBA
3. Gamecube
4. N64
5. Gameboy + Gameboy color
6. NES
7. NDS + NDS lite
8. Switch
9. WiiU
10. NES
11. 3DS + New 3DS
12. Wii
13. VB

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It isnt just AAA Nintendo games or portability making the switch great. It is being the #1 go to for popular indie games with the ability to play anywhere that is making this one a darling in many folks eyes.

 

[ZeoVGM]

NES should be higher on nearly everyone's list, since it was a juggernaut in its day. The sheer hold it had on all of gaming and of culture in general in the 80s and early 90s was unrivaled. Its library is massive and full of absolute classics.

But it does suffer due to age... I think you had to have been there to know its impact. And at this point, anyone under 30 wasn't. Unfortunately I think its graphics are significantly primitive to the fact that most younger people can't really go back and enjoy it to the fullest extent.... while, by contrast, many people too young for SNES can still go back to that pretty easily.

I think N64 has probably aged as badly as NES... but its audience is a decade younger and so it has more representation on modern lists.

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I think whether or not the games are still fun today is more important than impact when ranking consoles.

There are plenty of NES games that are still great and playable. But SNES doesn't have that problem of the games feeling as if they've aged. Hell, the SNES lineup has arguably aged better than N64's thanks to so many early 3D games not playing well.

 

[Deleted member 249]

I really don't get the elation some people are experiencing with Switch. Yeah a new Smash game just came out, but does nobody remember the feeling of all the other Smash games coming out? Ultimate is just another one. Probably the best thing about Ultimate is that the online sort of works finally.

Other than Smash 2018 has been a huge dud for me. Not 1 other $60 looked half way worth it for me. Splatoon is still great, and Zelda is GOAT, but both experiences were there on WiiU. Not to mention, Switch is not very old. Calling it #1 is just dripping in fanboyism. I suppose if I ran a Nintendo centric website as a major part of my income, my livelihood would be linked to Switch hype and I would be slicing up numbers to look as shiny as possible.

Click to shrink...

I think one thing you need to remember, apart from the Switch having received several games considered "the greatest of all time" already, is just how fundamentally appealing it is as hardware, and as a concept, and many take to it simply because of that, and enjoy it by orders of magnitude more as a result. The other consoles seem a bit boring next to how inventive and appealing the Switch can be.

 

[SantaC]

I might be alone for this but GBA SP is number 1 for me.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Nintendo 64

Mario 64. The platformer widely considered to be the "Dawn" of 3D gaming done right

Ocarina. The unanimously agreed upon greatest Zelda and arguably greatest game ever

Mario Kart 64. The one that took the franchise to mainstream heights

The birth of Smash Bros

Rare's best output period - Banjo, Banjo 2, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, DK64, Diddy Kong Racing

To this day the greatest wrestling games ever made which won't ever be topped

The birth of Mario Party

The birth of Mario Tennis

The birth of Mario Golf

1080 Snowboarding

Waverace

64 is the best console Nintendo ever put out. I wasn't even a young child when it released either. No nostalgia goggles here.

 

[cyba89]

It's pretty amazing they managed to come up with a list that got every single placement wrong (except for last place, I give them that).

 

[BRSxIgnition]

Who in their right mind would rate the Wii I that high? It's above the virtual boy and that's it.

 

[Deleted member 249]

Nintendo 64

Ocarina. The unanimously agreed upon greatest Zelda and arguably greatest game ever

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You know, this ain't no longer true. We have one that is at least as beloved

 

[byDoS]

That's how you objectively and subjectively get things wrong. It's a rare usage of your free will to express something universally and subconsciously fucked up.

 

[Thatguy]

It isnt just AAA Nintendo games or portability making the switch great. It is being the #1 go to for popular indie games with the ability to play anywhere that is making this one a darling in many folks eyes.

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But it's not. PC is, and always will be #1. You can even get a Surface Go for Switch money and instantly have a much bigger indie library to choose from. Indies come to PC first 99% of the time too. Switch is gedtting a lot of indie ports though and is even more convenient and easy to play with than a Surface due to integrated controls. But in terms of game prices, release date, sales, controller compatibility, number of titles, Screen size and quality, PC beats Switch by a lot.

 

[Slim]

Gamecube #1 for me. DS at #7 issa joke.

 

[Deleted member 36622]

1) I think Switch has the potential to be number one BUT, it still hasn't reached the level of SNES.

2) Game Boy and Game Boy Advance are probably the best consoles (or top 3) from Nintendo. If you disagree, you probably don't understand Nintendo's tradition with portable systems which is arguagbly even more important than their home consoles, and how revolutionary it was at the time to play a big game like Pokémon on the go or even just Tetris. In a time where there were no smartphones, Snake appeared on the Nokia 3310 in 2000, 11 years after the og Game Boy.

3) Wii is such an underrated system, it did some much beyond gaming, if you think it was for a long time the first good set-top box (for many years it was the most popular Netflix/Hulu machine in US); Wii Fit + Balance Board basically did better what fitness trackers and smart scale with their apps are doing now but 10 years before; it really achieved at making gaming a form of entertainment for everyone just like a book or a movie. I think Nintendo DS also should be praised for that. While nowadays consoles are again only for gamers.

4) Wii U should be at the bottom. Its core concept of a tablet for the living room was outdated when it launched, cause iPads and Nexus tablets were already around by that time and with a much better hardware. The hardware was incredibly obsolete, it didn't capitalize on Wii's success (Nintendo really just needed a Wii 2), and even software wise it was a mess, it brought huge delays even from Nintendo itself, it was destroying the company.

 

[Vito]

Switch is #1 for me followed by the N64 and GC.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

You know, this ain't no longer true. We have one that is at least as beloved

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Hooooo Boy. This post combined with mine will blow Windrunner 's mind

 

[Deleted member 249]

Hooooo Boy. This post combined with mine will blow Windrunner 's mind

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I mean, that's fine lol, but it is what it is.

 

[Moose the Fattest Cat]

The Wii should be much higher based on the Virtual Console alone, which was not nearly as robust on Wii U and non-existent on Switch.

 

[Thatguy]

I think one thing you need to remember, apart from the Switch having received several games considered "the greatest of all time" already, is just how fundamentally appealing it is as hardware, and as a concept, and many take to it simply because of that, and enjoy it by orders of magnitude more as a result. The other consoles seem a bit boring next to how inventive and appealing the Switch can be.

Click to shrink...

I might be a rare gamer who uses a laptop and a dock so this hybrid concept wasn't at all new for me.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

Switch is going to be pretty low for me so far. Power, software, online, and access to legacy titles are lacking.

 

[Gobias-Ind]

Switch is number 1 for me, easily. It's the WiiBoy Advance. A clear evolution of their entire hardware line, aside from the missing link that is DS. The GameBoy Advance line was a fantastic evolution from GameBoy and was clearly unrivaled during its time. DS was unique, but I was always more of a PSP guy. I grew up with the Genesis so, personally, I never cared about the SNES. The only other home console to grab me at all was the GameCube, but it was late in its life and was a fantastic value at $99 with a nice library that I hadn't touched to that point.

Switch really stands alone as an undisputed leader with regards to portable gaming, while also being the first "home console" that stands out in any way from its contemporaries since Sony and Microsoft joined the fray. Since the 16-bit days, if you put a gun to my head each generation and forced me to pick a single platform and stick with it, Nintendo's offerings wouldn't even occupy a second of my thought. This gen, I think I'd pick the Switch outright.

 

[Boiled Goose]

If we're going by sales, I think we also agree that Wind Waker is a better game than Majora's Mask, A Link to the Past, and Skyward Sword then, right

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Sales weren't the argument. Just supporting info.
Majoras and alltp of course not.

SS? Maybe. TP WW and SS all suffer from same bad design.

 

[Deleted member 249]

I might be a rare gamer who uses a laptop and a dock so this hybrid concept wasn't at all new for me.

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Yeah, sure, but it's a concept that didn't hit mainstream until the Switch made it so, plus the sheer ease of use, combined with a very well received library, makes it beloved.

 

[trugs26]

Yeah handhelds usually are neat to have but on the grand scheme of things, the libraries aren't stellar. I'd definitely choose Wii u over all handhelds except 3DS. So the list is not bad. I'd rank N64 a little lower personally.

 

[daninthemix]

Wow, recency bias much??

SNES is the best.

 

[BocoDragon]

I think whether or not the games are still fun today is more important than impact when ranking consoles.

There are plenty of NES games that are still great and playable. But SNES doesn't have that problem of the games feeling as if they've aged. Hell, the SNES lineup has arguably aged better than N64's thanks to so many early 3D games not playing well.

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I can definitely understand ranking via that criterion.... But it's a little hard for me to just discount the most aged consoles out of hand.

NES and N64 were both very important in their day*, but I think they'd get steamrolled by the GCN -> Switch in terms of being playable today.

I personally couldn't rate the consoles based purely on modern viewpoints of their games because it discounts so much important gaming history due to our modern biases of what is playable. But easy for me to say, I lived through all generations of Nintendo as they were new. I have to include in my ranking what the consoles meant to us in the time they were current. Maybe younger gamers simply can't represent that viewpoint fairly for all gens.


* Just gotta climb onto my personal soapbox and say: NES >>>>>>>>> N64 in terms of importance in its day. N64 was a library dropoff from NES and SNES and shared the crown of the times with PS1... but NES was videogame culture in its day.

 

[Deleted member 36622]

Yeah handhelds usually are neat to have but on the grand scheme of things, the libraries aren't stellar. I'd definitely choose Wii u over all handhelds except 3DS. So the list is not bad. I'd rank N64 a little lower personally.

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Game Boy Advance was BC with all previous Game Boy, it saw many SNES ports on top of new games. I'd say its library is better than Wii U.

 

[Greatest Ever]

How high do you have to be to rank the 3DS over the DS?

 

[ZeoVGM]

I can definitely understand ranking via that criterion.... But it's a little hard for me to just discount the most aged consoles out of hand.

NES and N64 were both very important in their day*, but I think they'd get steamrolled by the GCN -> Switch in terms of being playable today.

I personally couldn't rate the consoles based purely on modern viewpoints of their games because it discounts so much important gaming history due to our modern biases of what is playable. But easy for me to say, I lived through all generations of Nintendo as they were new. I have to include in my ranking what the consoles meant to us in the time they were current. Maybe younger gamers simply can't represent that viewpoint fairly for all gens.


* Just gotta climb onto my personal soapbox and say: NES >>>>>>>>> N64 in terms of importance in its day. N64 was a library dropoff from NES and SNES and shared the crown of the times with PS1... but NES was videogame culture in its day.

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Understandable. I'm not really in the "NES has aged like shit" camp. I think a good game is a good game no matter what.

But I do think the NES library has been overtaken a number of times. I think I would even put N64 above it because, despite NES having more good games, I think there are more I'd jump at playing on N64.

Basically, if there were an N64 Classic and an NES Classic where I picked the 20 games, I think I would end up wanting to play the N64 Classic more.

 

[Deleted member 249]

How high do you have to be to rank the 3DS over the DS?

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With the argument of BC, that one sort of makes sense?

 

[King_Moc]

Wii U is too high, but otherwise it seems fine. Switch is definitely the best system they've done. The concept just feels like the future. Both the idea and the implementation.

 

[ZeoVGM]

How high do you have to be to rank the 3DS over the DS?

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This is such a strange take. They both have fantastic game lineups.

Your reaction would only make sense if they put Virtual Boy above DS.

 

[Greatest Ever]

With the argument of BC, that one sort of makes sense?

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Bleh. I got a DSi XL because I didn't want to play my DS games on the 3DS' butt BC.

 

[Greatest Ever]

This is such a strange take. They both have fantastic game lineups.

Your reaction would only make sense if they put Virtual Boy above DS.

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The 3DS has by no means a fantastic game lineup.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

GBA is far too low, N64 is way too high.

 

[Nickerous]

Voters had to be in their 20s or early 30s. Personally, I'd put N64 next to last. It's the only Nintendo system I have sold nearly everything for. I could sell the console cause I never intend to hook it up ever again. It's a two game system in my eyes.

And the switch would be in front of only the virtual boy, n64 and GBC.....in my personal opinion.

 

[ZeoVGM]

The 3DS has by no means a fantastic game lineup.

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Probably one of the craziest things I've ever read.

 

[Crashman]

I'm confident the Switch could be a top 3 for me, but it's still too early. SNES and Gamecube would be at the top for me though. I'm not super keen on the NES or DS, so those arent quite snubs to me. The only real injustice is how low the GBA is.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

The 3DS has by no means a fantastic game lineup.

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Disagree, I prefer 3DS to the DS, and it absolutely has a better library than the Gameboy or Gameboy Color.

 

[Deleted member 6215]

It's a pretty bad list...but good for generating some discussion?

All I got.

 

[LunarKnite]

At first I was like, eh... but if you think about the access to software each console had, I can definitely see merits in this ranking. And solely due to the fact that the 3DS and Wii U and backwards compatibility for DS and Wii games, respectively, along with their own library, and - at least in the 3DS's case - had a much better offering of eShop and Virtual Console games, they are very much deserving of their high placements. Though clearly that's not the case in this ranking as GC is over Wii.

However, as someone who never owned an N64 or GC, I know my own list would favor heavily into the portable consoles that Nintendo offered. And that puts other lists into perspective as I know people would take offense to my ranking.
(My personal ranking would be 3DS > Switch > SNES > DS > Wii U > GBA > GBC > Wii > GB > GC > N64 > NES > VB)